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Lead Generation and Marketing Automation
Lead Generation and Marketing Automation
Lead Generation is the top priority for marketing directors in 2009. More importantly,
marketers are being charged with defending their budgets and demonstrating real ROI for
their marketing programs. Use this How-To Guide to learn how other world-class
companies are developing lead generation infrastructures that automate key processes,
measure results, and provide a steady flow of qualified leads their sales organizations.
This guide was created to help you assess your capabilities, develop an effective lead
generation strategy, organize resources & responsibilities, design and produce marketing
collateral, increase website traffic & functionality, develop public/analyst relations,
understand marketing automation options, and implement lead generation programs.
Executive Summary...................................................................... 5
Top Marketing Challenges in 2008 ................................................................................. 5
Key Trends in Leads Generation..................................................................................... 5
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Executive Summary
This step-by-step guide was created to help you assess your capabilities, develop an effective lead
generation strategy, organize resources & responsibilities, design and produce marketing collateral,
increase website traffic & functionality, develop public/analyst relations, understand marketing
automation options, and implement lead generation programs.
According to the CMO Council’s Marketing Outlook 2008 study that polled over 820 senior marketing
professionals, some of the top challenges for marketing leaders in 2008 include:
1. Quantifying the Value of Marketing - measuring the impact of marketing programs and
investments continues to be the top challenge for marketers.
4. Generating More Qualified Leads - emphasis on leveraging analytics to score lead quality,
and lead nurturing strategies to incubate & develop prospects.
Moving Lead Generation to the Web: the use of web 2.0 applications such as webcasts,
podcasts, communities, blogs, RSS feeds, rich media presentations, and social networking
tools has exploded with many organizations realizing the benefits online marketing channels.
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Use our proven consulting framework to benchmark your strengths & weaknesses and determine
which areas of your program need attention. This exercise will help you compare your organization
with world-class companies who operate with best practices, and provide you with a scorecard to
measure your progress. Next, determine your level of process maturity with the chart below.
Lead Generation Strategy, Processes & Skills Level 1 - Initial/Ad Hoc – lead
generation processes are not defined.
Metrics are not established or measured.
Marketing Automation & Lead Management
No consistency in results.
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Other Email
2. Other Sources (17%)
3. Email Marketing (15%)
4. Physical Events (12%)
5. Direct Mail (11%)
6. Telemarketing (11%)
For those marketers indicating a preference towards online marketing, the survey also uncovered
insights into the effectiveness of different digital mediums. Of the various online lead generation
modes, email blasts were selected as the most effective by 27% of the respondents, with live
webinars (22%) and white papers (19%) cited as the other performing methods.”
– Source: Demand Gen Report
A Lead Acquisition Model is a simple process diagram that will visually communicate how your target
market will engage with your brand and ultimately become a qualified sales lead.
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Sales complain that the tradeshow, web, or other leads they get are junk. Marketing says that Sales
doesn't call the quality leads they produce. Sound familiar? The basis for this common rift is a poorly
defined lead generation, qualification, scoring, and nurturing program.
The most important step is to agree on a definition of a ‘qualified lead’. Lead scoring is a method of
quantifying the value of a sales lead by categorizing its probability to generate revenue. With this
information, Sales executives and managers can manage their pipeline more effectively by optimizing
sales resource allocation. Read more with our summary, ‘Score Big with Lead Scoring’.
Sales Conversion Cost - when you have scored each lead, you can mitigate lost sales by
allocating high-quality leads to high-caliber salespeople.
*Note: Lead Scoring is a process that can be automated by a Marketing Automation solution.
Demand Metric 10 12 13 15 20 15 85 A
ABC Company 80 4 7 3 13 19 55 C
XWY Widgets 12 2 3 4 11 4 36 D
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Instructions:
1. Dig up Historical Information - track down any previous campaign data such as: email
click-thru rates, direct mail responses, contact center metrics, tradeshow results, website
analytics, or other measures that can be used as a baseline to compare future results.
2. Set Lead Generation Objectives - your goals may be to increase leads for a particular
product, to achieve commitment to core messaging from customer-facing representatives, or
to unify your disparate lead generation activities.
3. Determine Specific Targets & Actions - this part of your scorecard deals with HOW you are
going to achieve your goals & objectives. For example, you may wish to target similar-sized
organizations with a product offer.
4. Define Measures of Success - like all objectives, you need to determine how success will be
measured, BEFORE you kick-off your initiative. These are the Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) that will be monitored to demonstrate improvement.
5. Establish Goal Timeframes - your last step is to break the larger, overarching goals into
more manageable pieces. If you are targeting prospects from a tradeshow, create a goal like:
contact each prospective lead no later than 60 days following tradeshow.
6. Build your Lead Generation Scorecard - now that you understand each step of the
process, use Demand Metric’s customizable Lead Generation Scorecard to create your own
framework for integrating campaigns
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Build a list of proposed Marketing Communications Projects and systematically prioritize them based
on Strategic Fit, Economic Impact, and Feasibility. The index will provide a numeric value for each
project/initiative based on assessment criteria. Next, sort the list from highest to lowest value.
Generate a Marketing Communications Plan & Budget that will outline your strategic objectives, key
performance indicators, internal communications plan, and external communications plan. This
document may need to be updated as you further develop your lead generation infrastructure.
Website (26%)
Tradeshows (24%)
Telemarketing (11%)
Branding (8%)
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Developing leaders is a top organizational development priority for every company. Effectively
managing knowledge capital is especially important in highly competitive industries. Understanding
and deploying a succession management strategy is an excellent way to manage your department,
groom future leaders, and mitigate risk.
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• Scope – are scope management tools used for all project deliverable changes?
• Time – are projects systematically prioritized to ensure allocation of resources?
• Cost – is cost planning & tracking embedded in your project management system?
• Quality – do you conduct post-project evaluations and test quality at milestones?
• Human Resources – is your project team engaged from concept to post-evaluation?
• Integration – do you have good coordination when executing campaigns?
• Communications – is a formal communication plan required for projects?
• Risk – do you assess severity, probability, & impact and mitigate potential risks?
• Procurement – are purchasing decisions made with regard to multiple initiatives?
1. Increased Visibility - reporting project status, milestones, and deliverables are planned,
documented, communications that can be viewed anytime.
2. Reduced Risk - by implementing scheduled project checkpoints, quality is assured and failing
projects are quickly identified and crashed. Additionally, the risk of key project team members
leaving is mitigated through the use of formalized project communication documents.
4. Effective Scope & Time Management - every executive can relate to projects that 'creep' in
scope as they progress. Documenting changes to project scope and deliverables, and
adjusting budgets and timelines, cannot be done effectively without using proper tools.
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Assess your Project Management processes & systems with our maturity assessment:
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Activity Description - this section briefly describes what program/project the activity is
related to, ensuring alignment with business goals & objectives.
Start Date/End Date - when was the activity first started, and how long did it take to
complete? Does the time taken to complete the task fall in line with time spent on other
priorities? Do all activities add up to a full week/month?
Next Steps/Results - have your staff provide a very brief, forward-looking next steps or end
results that were delivered. This section is also effective for communicating issues that need to
be escalated.
2.0 Planning
2.1 Website Project Plan & Scoping 01/06/07 Project Charter Completion
2.2 Analyze Deliverables 01/06/07 Work Breakdown Structure
2.3 Schedule Work for Web Redesign 01/06/07 Project Schedule Signed Off
3.0 Execution
3.1 Press Release for 20th Anniversary 01/10/07 01/14/07 Send Release to Target Press
3.2 Performance Reviews 01/02/07 01/29/07 Communicate feedback/results
4.0 Control
4.1 Portal Content Reviewed & Approved 01/15/07 01/17/07 Post on Sales Portal
5.0 Closure
5.1 Landed CRM Implementation Project 01/20/07 01/24/07 Post-Project Evaluation Done
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Clear Communication
Brand Consistency & Aesthetic Appeal
User-Friendliness & Easy Navigation
Search Engine Optimization & Structure
Content, Forms, & Contact Information
Transaction Capabilities & Analytics
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CG AG EA CV EI $ Risk SR IA
Perfect Requirement 20 10 10 15 15 5 10 10 5 100
Browser Compatibility 19 9 10 9 14 5 5 9 5 85
Web Analytics for Individual Visitors 20 7 7 5 13 5 9 10 5 81
Update Website with New Branding 18 9 6 12 10 4 9 8 4 80
Lead Scoring & Nurturing 19 8 7 13 12 3 6 7 5 80
Clean, Professional Look & Feel 19 10 5 9 14 5 4 8 4 78
Customer Self-Service 17 7 10 15 8 1 7 6 2 73
Email Integration 17 9 8 5 14 4 5 6 1 69
Forms (captures leads) 15 9 9 6 7 5 6 8 4 69
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Additionally, with the flood of vendors who have come to market, competitive pressures have reduced
the costs of these systems drastically. Most Demand Generation solutions can be integrated directly
with CRM systems to track leads from initial inquiry to sale, providing a closed loop reporting
mechanism for marketing activities, enabling campaign ROI measurement.
Lead Acquisition: leads are acquired when prospects inquire or respond to marketing
campaigns such as tradeshows, email marketing, direct mail, cold-calling, search engine
marketing, online advertising, etc.
Lead Scoring: leads are scored for quality based on explicit profile criteria (job title, company
size, location, etc) and implicit behaviors (web visits, downloads, event registrations, form
submissions, etc).
Lead Nurturing: leads are incubated until they are ready for follow-up by sales. Typically,
nurturing involves steady communications designed to educate the buyer and align purchasing
and sales cycles.
Lead Assignment: once leads reach a specified quality score, they are deemed sales-ready
and are assigned to sales representatives for immediate follow-up.
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Marketing Automation Process Diagram
At a high level, marketing automation systems allow organizations to generate & execute campaigns
(email, direct mail, advertising, PR, search) to drive prospects to their website where they can be
tracked and measured by the software.
Once a prospect clicks-through on a track-able HTML email link or completes a web form they are
analyzed by the marketing automation system. Next, the system will automatically assess the
prospect’s profile and activity history (page visits, downloads, email opens, flash demo views, etc) to
arrive at a lead score. Then, the prospect is nurtured with automated communications or ‘drip-
campaigns’ until their score reaches a threshold defined by Sales & Marketing as a ‘qualified, sales-
ready, lead’. Finally, the lead is assigned in the CRM system.
1. Alignment of Sales & Marketing: alignment occurs when sales and marketing can agree on
the definition of a qualified lead; systems are integrated to provide visibility into activities and
results; and the loop is closed between lead source and revenue generated.
2. Increased Win Rates: leads that are scored and nurtured before being handed off to sales
close at higher win rates as purchasing & sales cycles are more aligned.
3. Reduced Cost per Lead: when key marketing processes such as lead scoring, lead nurturing,
and lead assignment are automated, less resources are required to manage new opportunities.
Additionally, the use of a web/email-based approach can drastically reduce acquisition costs for
new prospects and opportunities.
4. Improved Accountability & Credibility: marketing leaders can provide accountability for their
spending once they are able to quantify the impact of their investments. When deployed
properly, Demand Generation solutions increase credibility by providing a system of record that
tracks and measures marketing activities and business results.
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Individual User Web Analytics & Search Engine Marketing: individual website visitor
activity can be tracked and provided to sales users; paid search campaigns and online
advertisement programs can be integrated to track original lead source; website search
queries can be tracked and tied to prospects; natural/organic search traffic can be tracked and
keywords used to find your website are identified; non-registered companies can be identified
based on their corporate IP address.
Lead Conversion, Landing Pages/Forms, & PURLs: web forms can be created by
marketing without I/T support; unique URLs can be used to track leads from advertising,
direct mail, or other offline campaigns; personalized URLs (PURLs) or landing pages can be
created to provide more customized interactions with customers; data can be captured from
web forms that were not completed or submitted; forms can block invalid/free email addresses
(hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc) to ensure leads are qualified; form fields can be customized and
set up to capture additional information during subsequent web visits.
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If you are looking to drive traffic to your website, Google AdWords is a cost-effective method which
delivers measurable results to marketers. Read more with, ‘Pull Prospects with Google AdWords’
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Finally, make results visible with a sales board, and provide incentives that keep your salespeople
motivated to keep their phone engaged for 7+ hours per day. Read more about improving inside
sales with our summary, ‘Making Cold Calling Work for You’.
Most organizations have a very difficult time quantifying the productivity of their inside sales
departments. If you don't have a phone system that captures accurate dialing, contact, and other
productivity metrics, use a simple manual process instead. Read more with our summary:
‘Monitoring Inside Sales Productivity’.
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Providing on-demand webcasts to prospective customers is a rapidly growing lead generation strategy.
Instead of having to call a salesperson at a potential vendor, your prospects can complete the
research component of their buying process at their convenience. Read our summary, ‘Generate
Leads with Webcasts’ to determine if this tactic should be added to your marketing mix.
A podcast is a collection of digital media files distributed over the internet using syndication feeds for
playback on portable media players and personal computers. Although podcasters’ web sites may offer
direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished by its ability to be
syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added. This is done
using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS (really simple
syndication). Read more with our summary, ‘Nurture Prospects & Leads with Podcasts’
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Trade promotion is a key activity for all consumer marketing plans which encourages increased short-
term sales by effectively decreasing the cost-per-item to the end consumer. By measuring the
incremental increases in sales volume relative to the costs of the trade promotion campaign,
marketers can identify which trade campaigns provide the most return on investment and optimize
their trade plan by investing in the most effective trade channels and promotions. Read more with our
summary, ‘Closing the Loop on Trade Promotions’
Evaluate possible trade promotions with a logical Trade Promotion Evaluation Matrix:
Feasibility - Does the retailer have the infrastructure and resources necessary for set up?
On a Scale of 1-10, rank Feasibility 10% 6 8 4 8 9
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Demand Metric is a management advisory firm delivering Executive Summaries, How-To Guides,
Practical Templates & Tools, and Consulting Services to Sales & Marketing executives in mid-sized
enterprises. Focused on Strategic Planning, Product Management, Lead Generation, and Sales/CRM
Effectiveness, our resources help organizations adopt Best Practices and work more efficiently.
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Guides, over 200 Practical Templates & Tools, and a weekly email newsletter highlighting new content.
All of our research & tools have been developed based on client feedback and request. Currently,
Demand Metric has a rapidly growing client-base of over 1000 senior Sales & Marketing executives.
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Visit our Analyst Perspectives Blog to stay up-to-date with trends, best practices, and network with
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